Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 5 February 2020.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 2:32, 5 February 2020

(Translated)

Thank you for that response. Personally, I welcome the idea of ambassadors, particularly as it was a idea Welsh Conservative idea to have them within the workplace. And if it can work in FE, then that can only be positive. Now, I accept what you said on how to proceed in this area, but one of the core elements of the programme is to secure sufficient numbers of bilingual staff to teach throughout Wales in all priority areas, such as those you've already mentioned. But the coleg Cymraeg is calling for a staff development programme on a national basis to support bilingual learning over the medium term.

Your proposal notes that 300 additional secondary school teachers will be required to teach Welsh, and another 500 to teach through the medium of Welsh by next year to be on the right track to for 2050. And it's clear that that isn't going to happen. So, it's unlikely that students and lecturers of the future will get a meaningfully different experience in terms of the use of the Welsh language after they leave school and go to college or undertake an apprenticeship. Eighteen coleg Cymraeg tutors are introducing Cymraeg Gwaith/Work Welsh, so how can you expect FE and the coleg Cymraeg to introduce a national programme and transform Welsh-medium provision in the post-16 sector when staff and students will come into that sector with skills that are no better than those they currently have?